After the league-stage exit from the 2021 T20 World Cup, India required some new ideas in the format. Virat Kohli had already announced his stepping aside as the captain. Hence, Rohit Sharma took over his place. He first earned a clean sweep against New Zealand and then repeated the same against West Indies and Sri Lanka. Especially in the previous two tournaments, Rohit displayed his skill for perfect man-management and tactical acumen. In this article, we take a look at three masterstrokes by Rohit Sharma in the last two T20I series.
1) Having Shreyas Iyer at No.3 in Virat Kohli’s absence
With Virat Kohli absent, there were a number of options to take up his role. Considering his recent form in the T20s, a few doubted if Shreyas Iyer would be okay to replace him. With doubts surrounding the move, a few captains might have altered their plans but Rohit stuck with Shreyas Iyer.
The newly-appointed KKR skipper scored more than 200 runs in the tournament and ended up as the Player of the Series. He also remained unbeaten and showcases his skills to score runs quickly. With this, India has a solid backup for the middle-order batters if there is an injury.
2) Sticking with Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has not been in the greatest form in recent months. However, Team India persisted with the veteran and got the results in the series against West Indies.
In the second T20I against West Indies, Bhuvi bowled a top penultimate over that simplified things for India. The player continued the good form with wickets in the powerplay and then, economical bowling at the death. It seems the pacer has regained confidence and that is good news for India.
3) Promoting Ravindra Jadeja in the batting order
One of the masterstrokes by Rohit Sharma in the last two T20I series is to push Ravindra Jadeja up the batting order against Sri Lanka. Although he did not get a lot of balls to face at No.4 in the first T20I, Jaddu made 45(18)* to help India close the game in the second game. He batted at No.5 in the second encounter.
With the hitting skills that he has developed recently, No.6 or No.7 would be too low for Jaddu. Hence, it was wise of Rohit to promote him. This way, India can have a very flexible batting line-up in future tournaments.
